Thinking the Unthinkable

Clay Shirky on the demise of print journalism and thinking about what might replace it: Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable. Don’t let the fact that it’s long turn you off; it’s a brilliant essay on adapting to the digital revolution.

When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to.

There are fewer and fewer people who can convincingly tell such a lie.